Show's Over
by Karma22
Summary: I know I can be colorful, I know I can be gray but I know this loser's living fortunate, 'cause I know you will love me either way. Puck and Rachel ten years later. T rating for Puck's language.


_**Show's over....**_

_So this was inspired by the movie Rockstar so if this scene is familiar....that's where it's from. I don't own Glee or Rockstar or the song Colorful by The Verve Pipe. I really recommend listening to the song as you are reading this as it really sets the mood._

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It was a dark bar, made smoky by all the cigarettes. Most of the light came from intermittent lamps hanging from the ceiling, and the lights behind the bar. People were sitting at the bar, drinking their 'poison' after a long day's work and having conversations that filled the room with a comforting hum of humanity. He sat on the stage, looking out at the people sitting at the small tables, drinking Irish Coffee to negate the cold temperatures and rain outside. He knew that none of them had been listening to the set of songs that he and the band had just played and yet they all knew that music had been playing, but he had time for one more song.

"So it's been a while since I've sung this song, but it goes out to someone special." He said into the microphone. He took one last drag of his cigarette and one last sip of his scotch and started to strum the guitar in his lap. He strummed the guitar for a couple of stanzas then his rough voice started to sing.

_The show is over close the story book  
There will be no encore  
And all the random hands that I have shook  
Well they're reaching for the door  
I watch their backs as they leave single file  
But you stood stubborn, cheering all the while_

He couldn't really see out into the audience, the lights on the stage blinding him to the people in the bar. But he could feel a different energy in the bar. He didn't know what it meant but it made him sing with just that much more emotion.

_I know I can be colorful  
I know I can be gray  
But I know this loser's living fortunate  
Cause I know you will love me either way_

_Most were being good for goodness sake  
But you wouldn't pantomime  
You are more beautiful when you awake  
Than most are in a lifetime  
Through the haze that is my memory well  
You stayed for drama though you paid for a comedy_

He could remember when he first sang this song to her. The tears in the eyes that told him every emotion that she felt. He first sang the song to show that he knew that she loved him, to show that he could go places. He sang her this song before he went and fucked it all up.

_I know I can be colorful  
I know I can be gray  
But I know this loser's living fortunate  
And I know you will love me either way_

_Look ahead as far as you can see  
We'll live in drama but we'll die in a comedy  
I know I can be colorful...  
I know I can be gray  
But I know this loser's living fortunate  
And I know you will love me either way_

He hadn't sung this song in over ten years, but it seemed right to sing it now. To sing it on the day that she said I love you for the first time, and on the day that he messed it up for the last time. Last he heard five years ago, she was living in Lima, working as a vocal coach at a music school. She was married and happy, which was all that he ever wanted for her. He knew that she would never have been happy with him, so he let her go. But he never forgot their song.

_I know I can be colorful...  
I know I can be gray  
But I know this loser's living fortunate  
And I know you will love me _

_Cause I know you will love _

_And I know you will love me either way_

The song ended and he muttered a quick thank you to the Seattle crowd that was in the bar at the time, and he turned to put his guitar back in its case and then went to help the band dismantle their equipment. Eddie, the drummer, nudged him and nodded his head in the direction of the front of the stage. "You got a groupie waiting for your autograph, Slick." Slick was the nickname Eddie gave to everybody, but he responded anyway. He turned around but still couldn't really see, as the stage lights were still on. He muttered out a quick "Hold on a sec," to whomever it was standing in front of the stage and quickly walked to the right of the stage where the stairs down to the main floor were. He quickly walked down them then turned to the left and froze. A million things entered his mind at the same time and most of them were along the lines of 'What is she doing here?' 'Is it really her?' 'What is she doing here?' 'God she looks great!' and 'What is she doing here?!'

"What are you doing here?" That wasn't what he wanted to have come out of his mouth the first time he saw her in ten years.

"I came to see you." She hadn't moved from her spot ten feet away from him.

"Why?"

" 'Cause I miss you. We made a mistake, and I-I never should have left. I should have come back the next day and talked with you instead of running away. I should have stood stubborn with you."

"I thought you were married?" God the idiocy coming out of his mouth just wouldn't stop, would it?

"Divorced three years. He couldn't compare to you. None of the men I've dated in the past ten years can compare to you." She took a step closer to him, then another one. He was rooted to the spot. He couldn't move, even though every muscle screamed at him to move. Move away, move towards her, they just screamed at him to do something.

"Why now? Why now after all of this time? Damnit, I was just now starting to get over you! Ten years, Rachel, ten fucking years to get over you and on the day that I finally feel like I can take a full breath, you appear back in my life?! Goddamnit!" He ran his hand through the full head of curly hair he now sported and looked away. Gone was the mohawk of his youth, instead he had let it grow out. He looked back at her and saw the tears shining in her eyes. He stifled a groan at the thought that he made her cry again, and walked over to her and took her in his arms. "Rachel...." He breathed out her name, the sound of it coming out half like a promise and half like a prayer for forgiveness.

"Noah, I don't want to spend any more time apart. It's taken me ten years to figure out that you are it for me. Don't make us spend any more time apart. Please." It was the plea at the end that got him. It was that plea that broke down the wall that he built ten years ago after she had broken him.

He crushed her to him. "Rachel." He said her name again as a plea, a prayer, a wish, a hope, a vow.

"Noah." All the same was carried in the way she said his name.

"I've really missed you."

"Me too."

"You know I'm never letting you go, right?"

She laughed, a happy sound that was just a little bit tearful. "I know. The same goes for you."

"I love you, Rachel."

"I love you, Noah."

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**I know the end is a little unrealistic, but I like how I ended it. Comments? Again, thanks go out to my beta Novice242 for catching my mistakes. Gotta love my fellow Glork!  
**


End file.
